Urasoe Castle, Hacksaw Ridge and Kakazu Ridge

For our first Christmas as husband and wife, Ben and I decided to forgo our usual gift exchange and instead we mutually decided on something that both of us have been pining over since we got on island: a DSLR camera. Since our "honey-versary" (honeymoon and anniversary) cruise is coming up extremely soon, there was really no reason not to make this purchase! We managed to find a really awesome deal at our military PX on a Canon Rebel T6 DSLR camera which came with multiple lenses, a carrying case, a camera strap and the store threw in a memory card and tripod for free! Needless to say, Ben and I feel like we got a pretty sweet deal. Merry Christmas to us ☺

We've messed around quite a bit with the camera since buying it, but this thing is seriously complicated and we have to reference the manual pretty frequently so it's been a tough learning curve. We decided to test our skills so far though by taking the camera on our adventure to both Kakazu Ridge and Urasoe Castle Ruins Park. Did I mention it's been 70 and sunny here all week? Aka the perfect park and picture taking weather!!

Kakazu Ridge, our first stop, is a historic site and it played a pretty big part in the Battle of Okinawa. The Japanese occupied this Ridge, and it was an integral element of the Shuri defense line. In fact, some of the heaviest fighting of the battle took place here. Literally thousands of Japanese soldier and hundreds of Americans were killed. The site is now a park with a children's play area and a massive observatory. Although I tend to prefer scenic overlooks, it was pretty interesting seeing our neighborhood (we could even spot our apartment building) as well as the neighboring air base.

Many of the WWII historic sites have this "May Peace Prevail on Earth" markers. We are still obviously learning what settings to use on our camera and how to focus...

This wall is marred by bullet holes from the Battle of Okinawa

The observatory! Undecided whether or not this was supposed to look like the earth...

The flat area is the Marine Corps Futenma air base. If you look really closely you can see about 8 Ospreys lined up in a row. The running joke is that Chinese spy's go up this tower with their binoculars to try and see what we're up to

Hundreds, if not thousands, of paper cranes

This little cave is called a Tochka. 5 or more Japanese soldiers would crawl into these holes and fight from them. This particular one still had bullet shellings that covered the ground

The winters in Okinawa seem to bring the most beautiful flowers. In four short weeks we can expect the cherry blossoms to bloom which I am very excited about! Here's my attempt at using the "close up" view... Definitely an upgrade from the iPhone!

My favorite discovery in Okinawa has BY FAR been this foot massage walking path that Ben and I stumbled upon in the park. You simply take your shoes off and walk slowly along the path. It can get a little intense, but it feels incredible. Can we get these in America?? Please?

Our last stop was to the Urasoe Castle ruins. This castle was built in the 13th century, was lit on fire during the 16th century and was obliterated by artillery in the 20th century. Needless to say, not much of it is left and what is left is most likely a reproduction. We still enjoyed poking our heads around though. This particular castle had some of the spookiest/most enchanting tombs which I've posted below.

The spooky tomb

The "Narnia's secret entrance door" tomb

We ended our day meeting a furry little friend. I can't say that running into a friendly cat was unpredictable, but I can say that it never gets old!!!

I will be posting about our honeymoon cruise soon so stay tuned!